Art of Hummingbird Gardening: How to Make Your Backyard into a Beautiful Home for Hummingbirds

by Mathew Tekulsky

This book is devoted solely to hummingbird gardening and is a practical guide to cultivating flowers and other plants that will attract the hummingbirds of North America to your home and garden.You will be able to grow flowers in profusion and provide nectar for these smallest of birds, which hover on fast-beating wings while they drink from flowers including pink Chinese lantern, bladderpod, woolly blue curls, scarlet sage, penstemon, columbine, long strips of fuschia, and many others.The Hummingbird Garden is packed with pertinent information, from a description of what hummingbird gardening is all about to how hummingbirds can be conserved and protected.Mathew Tekulsky explains the extraordinary way hummingbirds live and behave, the regions they inhabit throughout the year, and their migrating habits. He discusses how to start your own garden by recommending what to plant and then outlines what interesting events will take place in it. The valuable appendixes give complete information on hummingbird and plant varieties, bird and conservation organizations, and mail-order sources, as well as an extensive bibliography.Beautiful color photos throughout show many different types of hummingbirds enjoying their wonderfully active lives in gardens created expressly for them.

Genres: Nonfiction, Gardening

176 pages, Paperback

First published April 7, 2015

About the author

Mathew Tekulsky is an award-winning and best-selling author of novels, screenplays, and nonfiction. His novels include The Chestnut Tree; Saving Annie, a Feathered Quill Book Awards Gold Winner in Adult Fiction and finalist in the American Book Fest Best Book Awards; and Bernie and the Hermit, a finalist in the William Faulkner – William Wisdom Creative Writing Competition. His adapted screenplays have received awards from film festivals including the Paris Film Awards, the London International Film Festival, the Cinema New York City Film Festival, and the Toronto Film Awards. His short stories have appeared in a variety of literary magazines.

In nonfiction, he is the author of books including How to Create a Butterfly Garden, The Art of Hummingbird Gardening, Backyard Bird Photography, Galapagos Birds: A Photographic Voyage, Americana: A Photographic Journey, and Making Your Own Gourmet Coffee Drinks. He also wrote “The Birdman of Bel Air,” an online column for National Geographic chronicling his bird experiences through essays and photography. His bird photography has been exhibited in galleries and museums, including the Roger Tory Peterson Institute.

A native of Larchmont, New York, Mathew attended Mamaroneck High School before earning a BA in history with a minor in English from University of Rochester in 1975. During his Junior Year Abroad at the University of Birmingham, he wrote a thesis on Aldous Huxley. In his senior year at Rochester, he studied Southern literature with novelist Jesse Hill Ford. His work often explores memory, history, nature, and the emotional landscape of American life.

Reviews

[Kaushal · Rating 3 out of 5]

A personnel experience on humming birds

An overall good read with author personnel experience on humming bird. I already have few feeders and a small humming bird garden so I could draw parallels but would have loved it more if it has more technical details. One thing I didn’t like is the lack of the relevant humming bird pics and just repeat pics of Anna’s and Allen’s humming bird. A recommended read if you want to start on this subject.

[Ian Young · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lots of great photos of hummingbirds, and fun stories about hummingbirds in gardens. Probably an enjoyable read if you're simply a hummingbird enthusiast looking for a good time. However, it was slim on practical instructions for designing your own garden to attract hummingbirds. There are anecdotes of garden design and plant suggestions scattered throughout, but nothing like a systematic approach to plant selection or garden layout. And there's a fairly extensive appendix of plants that hummingbirds might use, but not much on which plants are _most_ favored, or on what current research has to say on hummingbirds' relationship to various plants. Maybe there really is nothing more to a good hummingbird garden than using a variety of plants they like and following the generic rules of landscape design, but I didn't leave this book feeling like I had any more direction than when I started.

[Dana Wright · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hummingbirds Gardening

Hummingbirds are so fascinating. I have one red glass hummingbird feeder that I feel daily. I read this book to find out what flowers attract hummingbirds in Texas. I know myrtle bushes do. Last summer I had a hose with a small spray on in on in the fall and that was the first I saw them it was buy the pink myrtle bush. Now that I have read this book I just have to find some of the flowers

[Kristin Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

The photos were pretty, but the book did not have a lot of substance regarding how and what to plant.

[Leonard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very informative book about gardening to attract hummingbirds with photos!